Ancient Israeli House Surprises Archaeologists

Below:

Next story in Science

The remains of a house uncovered in the city of Haifa are the
best-preserved yet from the Kingdom of Israel, dating back nearly
three millennia.

The site of the
discovery was excavated about 40 years ago, but neglect had
left the structure hidden until now. Layers of earth and garbage
had piled up atop it, and off-road vehicles had plowed over the
area, damaging the artifacts.

When archaeologists recently re-exposed the area during a dig,
they found the four-room home to be remarkably good shape — the
best-preserved house from the period of the Kingdom of Israel
found so far, the researchers said today (July 6). The dig is in
an area called Tel Shikmona.

"We had seen the structure in the old photographs and were sorry
that such a rarely preserved finding had disappeared due to
neglect. We were not even sure that we would be able to find it
again. It was practically a miracle that we managed to locate and
uncover it and that it is still so well-preserved," said the
leaders of the excavation team, Shay Bar and Michael Eisenberg of
the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa.

The dig also
unearthed remains of a Persian city from about 2,400 years
ago and a Byzantine town from approximately 1,500 years ago.

You can follow LiveScience writer Remy Melina on Twitter
@remymelina .
Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and
discoveries on Twitter@livescience and
onFacebook.